This was a cute book with a creative premise. Claire, the straitlaced, practical, things need to be planned out and organized corporate lawyer has fallen in love with a Spanish artist, Matias, who is impulsive and disorganized, but also thoughtful and caring, whimsical, gives his everything to what/whom he cares about, and creates art that speaks to Claire’s soul. Almost a year into their relationship, they are supposed to travel to Madrid to meet his family. However, Claire is in charge of a major merger and cannot afford to take time off work, so Matias travels to Spain alone. He meets up with friends for a guys' trip but there is a terrible accident that leaves two friends dead and the other three, including Matias, in a coma. Claire rushes to Spain to be with Matias and his family. Although she sees him in the hospital hooked up to machines unconscious, she also “sees” him and interacts with him elsewhere, except for this version of Matias, it is a year earlier, and he is preparing to move to New York City and has yet to meet and fall in love with Claire. Therefore, their interactions in Madrid are as if they are just meeting. After doing some research, Claire is led to believe that Matias’ soul is untethered, and that in order to reunite his soul with his body and awaken him from the coma, she has to make his soul fall in love with her. That is both easier and harder than expected and leads to tension with Matias' family.

The story alternates between their time together in New York and how their relationship develops, and Claire’s time in Madrid trying to get Matias back. I enjoyed the descriptions of Matias artwork and the way he talked about works of art by other artists. The “Welcome to Anything You Want” art collaboration site sounds fascinating. If it really existed, it would be fun to visit.

If you are a fan of romantic movies, you probably know/remember the pottery scene in "Ghost." There is a similar art-related passionate scene in the book between Claire and Matias' "soul", and it tops the pottery scene.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This book was super cute. I loved Claire and Matias's relationship; how opposites attracted. I loved the different points of view, even from the secondary and tertiary characters. It was a great love story, though we see more of Claire trying to get Mathias to fall back in love with her in soul form than the original relationship. Overall, I really enjoyed this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A review copy that won’t be published for a couple of months. An easy read more fluff than I thought. It was well written. The story does float between different characters voices. Not had to follow but having knowledge of Spanish culture and language is very helpful. A book with realistic characters that jumps between NYC and Madrid. After 11 months of dating, high powered attorney Claire’s boyfriend is in a coma in a Madrid hospital. She rushes to be by his side only to be thrown into his very big and protective family. They believe Claire is the guiding light to bring their son back them. Can Claire drop her armor and find the love and faith she desperately needs.

a hopeless romantic is written perfectly in this story - i had a super easy time connecting with this story and the plot kept me engaged through the whole thing.

It is a sweet love story about Claire and Matais, two very different people who meet, fall in love, and experience tragedy. Claire is then the only one who can coax Matais back to life. It was sweet, inspiring, and hopeful.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After an accident, Matías is left in a coma in Spain while his girlfriend of one year, Claire, finally meets his family. While in his coma, Claire begins to interact with Matías’s spirit in Spain, even though he doesn’t recognize her and thinks it’s the year before they met.

I think this book had a lot of promise. The cultural aspects of art and Spain were really enticing, and I loved the dynamic of a messy artist and a by-the-book lawyer. The magical realism premise was interesting and reminded me of one of my favorites, The Dead Romantics. That being said, this book fell short for me in terms of application. There were multiple different POVs that I felt were unnecessary, when I really think it would have strengthened the love story between Claire and Matías to have only single or dual-POV. Matías’s family was compelling but I felt we didn’t see much of his family life, their home life, and their interactions with Claire as much as I’d liked. Some of the writing felt lackluster to me, like towards the end of the book after the skydiving scene, and near the beginning when the two first meet.

I really enjoyed reading Claire’s navigation of the spanish language and culture, but other than that, a lot of the book fell flat to me unfortunately.

Tropes: Magical realism, amnesia, black cat X golden retriever, coma
Spice: 1.5

Loved this romance and loved the different point of views and the timeline of falling in love. I loved that she is figuring out the relationship and remembering those moments. I love that she has someone to talk to and she meets his family in a different way and love the grandma.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing -Ballantine for the ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

I loved The Hundred Loves Of Juliet, so I was so excited to get and advanced copy of Evelyn Skye's latest book. I am happy to say that it was just as good as I expected. The premise reminded me a lot of Ashley Poston's book, The Dead Romantics, but the storyline was definitely executed differently. I think that this author does an incredible job with descriptive details and that skill lent itself well to the settings in Madrid and NYC as well as the descriptions of the main characters and their love story.

Claire is a high powered lawyer living in NYC. She has new living family and her job is her life. She meets Matias, a Spanish artist, at a gallery opening and they fall fast and hard for each other. It's very much an opposites attract relationship. About a year into their relationship, Matias goes home to Spain (Claire decides not to go last minute) and gets into a terrible accident that puts him in a coma. When Claire goes to Spain to be with him, she keeps seeing him and interacting with his spirit (almost like a ghost). Eventually she determines that he needs help making his soul go back into his body. The love story in Spain as she attempts to have him fall in love with her again and the backstory of their original love story are both beautiful. I loved every second of this book and I recommend it highly. Thanks for the opportunity to review it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc.

This book left me wanting more. I felt the romance was rushed and didn’t give me the emotional satisfaction that I was hoping for after I read the description

3.5 Stars (rounded to 4) - A sweet story with emotional depth, but it left me wishing it was better.

I was originally drawn to this book because the premise had definite Ashley Poston, magical realism vibes (if you are a fan of The Dead Romantics or The Seven Year Slip, this should be right up your alley). I really wanted this to be a five-star read, and it has so much potential - a unique plot, great chemistry, and beautiful writing - but there were a couple of things holding it back.

My biggest issue is that the book felt like it was trying to do too much, not in terms of plot, but in terms of stylistic choices. The book bounces between the past and present, and also between six different points of view. In the end, I felt like the chapters written from the POV of Matias’s family members were unnecessary, and bogged things down. I also felt the ending was fairly abrupt. Even the epilogue was short, and not far enough out to provide any true sense of resolution.Lastly, Matias has very strong manic pixie dream guy vibes. I wish he had been portrayed as a more well rounded person.


Thanks to NetGalley for providing the advanced reader copy.

This book just didn't do it for me. The romance piece was so rushed, leaving me confused as to whether these two were really right for each other in the first place. Then, there is the confusing timeline, the odd and inconsistent paranormal rules established, and the chapters that randomly bring other perspectives into the story but without illuminating the relationship at the core. I'm not really sure who this book is for or who might connect with it. The magical elements seemed inconsistent to me and the romance was lacking.

One Year Ago in Spain is a wonderful romance story about 2 people with some major opposing lifestyles wrapped up in a little magical bow. I loved watching Matías and Claire’s relationship develop over the year as well as during the present. I loved the de Leon family so much, and wish we heard some more from them. I also loved watching Claire grow in several ways during her time in Spain. I did feel like the story was very slow to develop, especially in the middle. I sometimes found myself just wanting to get to the end, as it began to get a bit repetitive.

The story was beautiful, but something was missing emotionally from it. It didn’t hit hard, the way I wanted it to. I think the finale fell flat.

Likely an easy three to four stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Ray for the ARC.

What a cute and heart felt story! The characters were so easy to fall in love with and relate to. Ramon was a breath of fresh air and the sweetest. Definitely recommend to pick this one up.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I was. When I first read about this book it very much gave off just like heaven vibes and I was absolutely excited for that but it did not go the way that I expected. I wish I could have gotten to know more about the couple prior to this accident but there was not much telling from the past. I know that they are dating but it felt more like friends to me than they were lovers until the last bit of the book. I did love that there was quite a bit of Spanish in this book and Evelyn Skye did a good job on making sure everything was translated for us readers. I did really enjoy the ending to this book though and thought that it was a very good ending to this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for giving me an ARC of this book for my honest opinions.

This was an amazing book. The plot was very well thought out and I loved the setting very much! The romance was perfect.

3 stars

-multiple POV. Not just the main characters but the main guys family too
- paces really quickly
- couple meets fall in love then flash forward 11 months feel like I missed a lot
- major accident with multiple deaths
- opposites attract
- he fell first

I can honestly say this book took me on an adventure I didn't know what was going to happen. It starts out very fast paced and then Claire spends the book finding herself and her way back to Matias. The book puts you in your feels and I def cried


Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for sending me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pub date July 30 2024

I love how this book captures your attention from the first page. Everything about this emotional rollercoaster of a book has me on tenterhooks to see how things will eventually be resolved for these two incredible characters. I seriously couldn’t seem to get enough of it.

*2.5

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for sending me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

One Year ago in Spain is a romantic magical book which takes our FMC Claire through emotional journey to save her boyfriend, Matías from the grips of death herself.

Given the premise of the book, it reminded me so much of "Dead Romantics" by Ashley Poston! Which I enjoyed.

I originally intended to give this book a higher rating but unfortunately, a few things about the novel fell short for me.

For starters, the pacing of the book was unfortunately really confusing. We had the main couple meet for the first time and suddenly they fall in love so there was no build up towards the beginning so their chemistry isn't exactly THERE in the first half of the book.

As the book continues to progress they share a couple of cute moments and there is somewhat of a spark there but as soon as we get that spark and BAM! Suddenly it's the END.

Another part that I wasn't a fan of was the moments where we got different POVs that weren't Matías or Claires because this book is promoted as a romance I wouldn't expect to have side characters POV that had nothing to do with the romance itself. They didn't really add anything to the plot or story they were simply what I found unnecessary.

Finally, There was one specific scene that rubbed me the wrong way. There was a moment in the book where Claire the FMC was spending time with the MMC's family and they're looking at older family pics and the genitals of a literal baby are discussed for a moment. This is what really turned me off from the book. It made me feel uncomfortable, and honestly, I didn't understand why this scene was added.

Overall this book was decent, it had potential but it didn't meet my standards. I'm pretty sure that others could enjoy this book much more than I did which I really hope is the case!

Opposites attract, magical realism, NYC/Madrid setting, work/life balance.

Claire is a high-powered lawyer, control freak and as a result has a lackluster love life.

Matías is an artist, exhibiting in NYC for the first time. He left everything behind in Madrid to live in NYC and teach art at a college.

They meet at his gallery opening and hit it off immediately. Fast forward almost a year and Claire is spiraling, stressed and thinking they are too different. She finds a ring in the back of his sock drawer and is in the middle of negotiating a huge merger and it's too much for her. She backs out of the trip they have planned to Spain to meet his family.

Instead, Matías goes to Spain on a boy's trip with his crazy childhood friends and is in an accident leaving him in a coma. Claire drops everything to be there, and her work obviously suffers. It also reminds her how small her family is, foster parents having passed away after college.

While in Madrid, Claire sees Matías' soul through astral projections but from a year ago with no memories of her. She has to make him fall for her again to bring his soul back into his body.

Gives all the feels, and makes me want to visit Madrid!